HomeNewsBriefEl Salvador President Denies Zetas Train Street Gangs
BRIEF

El Salvador President Denies Zetas Train Street Gangs

BARRIO 18 / 7 MAR 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

El Salvador President Mauricio Funes has rejected claims the country's street gangs work with Mexico criminal group the Zetas and denied his administration is being extorted by gang leaders over the government-orchestrated gang truce as political pressure builds over the controversial agreement.

Funes dismissed claims made in a recent report from Washington DC-based International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC) that the Zetas had possibly trained factions of the Salvadoran street gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in El Salvador, saying there was "no evidence to make us think that," reported El Diario de Hoy.

The president also denied that gang leaders were forcing the government to pay them so the MS-13 and its rivals, the Barrio 18, maintain a ceasefire, which led to a 40 percent drop in the murder rate in El Salvador after it was implemented in March 2012.

"It is not true the gangs are blackmailing or extorting the government [over the truce]," he said.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Zetas - mara question is a sensitive and unresolved issue. Funes has been quoted on the record in the past as saying the Zetas have been "exploring" possible alliances with criminal groups in his nation, including with street gangs. And the United Nations, in a recent report (pdf), talked about Mexico's organized criminal groups moving south with the help of local allies. (See video below)

However, there is no solid evidence to illustrate that this has produced any steady institutional working relationship between street gangs and transnational criminal organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras, the three Central American countries with the strongest mara presence.  

The irony is that the above-cited IASC report, which InSight Crime reviewed, actually downplayed the Zetas - gang connections. And its author, Douglas Farah, told InSight Crime that he saw more evidence of the mara connections with El Salvador transport groups. To be sure, the report emphasized attempts by certain gang cells, known as "clicas," to become more involved in the drug trade on their own terms. 

Funes' comments also come at a time of increasing doubts over whether the gang truce can last and whether it is an effective tactic in reducing the violence and criminality associated with the gangs over the long term. 

The truce has been undermined by a recent increase in murders and suggestions that the true murder rate is being concealed by the practice of "disappearing" dead bodies. Earlier this month, a prominent opponent of the truce, who was used as a source for the IASC report, claimed his close colleague had been murdered in retaliation for his criticisms of the truce.

The report also claimed the truce has caused tensions between the MS-13 leaders in prison and those on the streets.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BARRIO 18 / 9 FEB 2023

In El Salvador, crackdowns have led to rapid improvements in security. But there is real doubt about whether gangs are…

EL SALVADOR / 3 OCT 2022

Extortion in the Northern Triangle is predominantly done from prisons, yet prison populations have been on the rise.

EL SALVADOR / 30 DEC 2021

The United States, under the Biden administration, was supposed to help curb corruption, but for corrupt officials in Central America,…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…